Top Story with Tom Llamas - Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world.

Tonight, the messy winter storm sweeping across the country creating dangerous and deadly conditions for tens of millions. Blizzards in the American heartland leading to torrential downpours in the northeast. Flood alerts across nearly all of New Jersey as heavy rain pummels the region. That forecast coming up in a few minutes. Runway pressure, thousands of flights delayed during the holiday travel crunch before New Year's. One Florida airport is so backed up, a full ground stop has been ordered. Our reporter is standing by with more on the developing air travel migraine. A leading actor in the Academy Award-winning film Parasite found dead in his car in the center of Seoul, what his manager found at his home, and what we know about potential drug charges he faced before his death.

Plus, cold case solved, an interview with the YouTuber who cracked a decade-old missing person's case, the drone pilot leading Missouri police to a car at the bottom of a lake, what was found at the scene that may close the investigation. And in The Ashes, the new documentary by our own Tom Yamis into the devastating Maui wildfires. The revealing video taken by one person escaping the flames and questions still at the center of how authorities handled the catastrophe. Top story starts right now. Good evening. I'm Zinclae Sama, in Washington, D.C. for Tom Yamas. We begin tonight with the cross-country storm snarling travel just days ahead of. of the new year. New video shows dense fog settling in over New York City, the fog extending all the way to the Great Lakes with visibility down to a quarter mile or less.

Ten million people under flood alerts from the mid-Atlantic through the northeast rain already starting right now in eastern Pennsylvania. Some areas could see rainfall totals up to three inches. Now, parts of the central U.S. cleaning up from blizzard-like conditions, but some scattered snow showers are continuing from Colorado to Illinois. A familiar scene this week, massive crowds at lines at airports as travelers deal with more delays and cancellations. So far, over 5,000 flights have been delayed today and 150 have been canceled. So let's get right to it with NBC News meteorologist Dylan Dreyer. Dylan, good to see you.

What are you watching right now? Well, we are keeping an eye on this expansive storm, although it is weakening as far as the snow is concerned out in the Midwest, but we do have that heavy rain affecting the East Coast. In fact, flood watches in effect from Philly right down into Atlantic City in New Jersey. Really not so much because of a lot of rain expected, more because the ground is totally saturated and the rivers are expected to overflow their banks a bit, so they do have that flooding concern there. The storm itself will continue to bring rain through the mid-Atlantic into the northeast, into New England tonight, and especially tomorrow morning, it'll taper off into showers by Thursday afternoon. But on the back side of it, temperatures tumble, and it is going to be cold enough to produce some snow again in the Midwest. St. Louis will see some of that light snow. Kentucky, Tennessee, northern...

Alabama and northern Mississippi could see some light snow falling, not going to accumulate all that much, but still, it'll be out there nonetheless. Most of the heavier snow amounts, a couple inches would be in the higher elevations back toward the Appalachians. As for rain, we're really only looking about one to three inches. Again, not a big rainmaker, but still a nuisance for those folks trying to travel. Now, if you can wait until Saturday, that's when most of the country kind of clears out, except for the west coast. we are going to see a lot of sunshine, but out west in California, up into Oregon and Washington State. We'll see some heavier rain and mountain snow. And then going into Sunday, the whole thing clears out. Most of the country looks good besides some scattered snow showers around the Great Lakes. Midnight going into the new year, looks awfully cold across the Northern Plains.

And then on New Year's Day itself, most of the country looks okay if you do have to travel, although temperatures will be more seasonal and colder exactly what you'd expect. In Clay, Dylan Dreyer in New York, thanks so much. Well, as we mentioned, the weather causing flight delays and cancellations across the country during a busy holiday week. But in South Florida, the sheer volume of travelers is backing up multiple airports there, including a ground delay at West Palm Beach Airport for a second day. NBC Sam Brock joins us now live from Miami. So, Sam, what's the latest at this hour?

Are we still seeing long delays? Yeah, there are still delays, Zinkley. One and up, when there are travel issues, all roads typically lead back to Florida. This is no exception. Now, the good news here, as you mentioned, this is a ground delay. It's not a stoppage. That's the language that the FAA is using, but the explanation right now, in quotes, airport volume. That is the problem.

Let's look at the numbers right now. You mentioned one airport, particularly being backed up. That's PBI or the Palm Beach International Airport. 223 minutes, so that's roughly four hours as the average delay. The maximum delay, 1,260 minutes. That is the equivalent of about a 21-hour wait. Now, that is not still the case. The FAA does give you a breakdown,

and it's really more like a couple hours right now for many folks. But the trickle-down effect here is massive zinclay, because PBI does not do a ton of volume. Naples also having some issues. That's on the western part of Florida. That doesn't do a lot of value. Miami International, FLL or Fort Lauderdale, they do tons of volume.

When you look at the misery map right now, and this is the national picture, you will see that both MIA and FLL are in the top five right now. You see them there. It's going to be kind of granular on the right-hand. side of your screen. Take my word for it, that the Miami area airports are up there towards the top, and that does affect other places around the country as well, because so many folks for these holiday seasons are certainly going from Florida to places like D.C., to New York,

to Los Angeles, to Chicago. So there's a massive impact, although certainly it could be worse if there was a stoppage again. There's a delay right now on the ground in many of these airports regionally. Yeah, Sam, I mean, they call it the misery map for a reason, right? Is the FAA saying, though, how this happened? Were they just unprecedented? prepared for such large numbers of travelers? It's a great question. This goes beyond just volume. So the FAA did issue a statements in Clay,

and they talk about staffing triggers specifically. I'm going to have that pulled up for you so we can check out their exact language. But essentially, this is at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center, which is exacerbating delays, and it has to do with staffing. I'm not talking about the ATC control towers at the individual airports.

This is something for the area. So it's affecting Miami. It is affecting Fort Lauderdale. It's affecting PBI. And They are basically in charge of monitoring and providing clearance for the aircraft once they're at altitude. That's where you don't have enough people. And the broader context, dear Zinkley, is the fact that the FAA has been having conversations with the airlines for years about staffing issues, specifically in Florida. And they've tried to get their arms around this and address it. Obviously, the situation was certainly worse a year ago for a multitude of reasons.

But this old problem appears to be rearing its ugly head once again. Zinclair? Sam Brock in Miami for us. Thanks so much. Let's turn now to the 2024 presidential race and former President Trump's latest victory. The Supreme Court in Michigan rejecting a case to remove Trump from the state's 2024 ballot. Now, this all comes just a week after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled to remove him from their presidential election ballot. Let's bring an NBC news correspondent, Vaughn Hilliard, and NBC News legal analyst Danny Savalos.

Vaughn, I'll start with you. Former President Trump has already posted on true social praising this ruling here. What more are we learning about the Trump campaign and this latest ballot? Right. Donald Trump is declaring this a victory, Zinclaid. The difficult part for him, though, is that there is one state Supreme Court, Colorado Supreme Court, which has already ruled against him to disqualify him from the ballot in the state of Colorado. And really, the folks that are looking and believe that Donald Trump should be kicked off the ballot around the country on the premise that he had engaged in or aided the insurrection and should therefore be disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, all they needed was one major

victory. And they got that in the state of Colorado. We are now waiting for Trump's legal team to file their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court out of that Colorado ruling. And then at that point, we expect the U.S. Supreme Court to ultimately hear oral arguments of this case. And that would not just impact the likes of Colorado, but would have an impact on balance across all 50 states. And so this Michigan, you know, the Michigan Supreme Court, not hearing the case to disqualify him may be a victory in his eyes. But really, this U.S. Supreme Court, is going to be the ones to have the ultimate say in this, and Clay.

Okay, Danny, let's bring you in because we heard Vaughn say this could have impacts well beyond just one state, right? So after the decision in Colorado and now Michigan, is it more likely that the Supreme Court will have to weigh in here? Oh, it's almost certain that the Supreme Court will have to weigh in. And you have a classic, well, in the Supreme Court they call the circuit split. That's not really what you have here because it's not the circuit courts of appeals. But when you have different conclusions arrived at by different courts and different

jurisdictions. And of course, these decisions involve such weighty constitutional issues. This is set up as a classic case that the Supreme Court should take up, especially because even though these are state laws that are being interpreted, they have gigantic constitutional implications. So in all likelihood, the court will take this up. I can't imagine them not taking this up because it's of such critical importance. But there are also some grounds, for example, for the court to decline to even hear it because one of the arguments is that it may be what's called a non-justiciable political question, something that is not something the courts can decide in the first place. So, Vaughn, in addition to the ballot legal battles, Trump has a busy

2024 already planned for him, both politically and with these legal cases. If you just look at the calendar, he has trials before and after important 2024 election date. So the question here is, how is the Trump campaign really preparing to handle this as we head into an election year? You know, just before Christmas and Clay, I was talking with one of the senior advisors to Donald Trump's campaign, Susie Wiles, and I asked her about this calendar and its impact. In her words, it's a nightmare because March 4th, if, in fact, that federal election interference case were to proceed, that is in the heart of this primary battle for him. Super Tuesday is when the most states in the country are going to go to the polls to make their selection in this Republican primary process. And, you know, Danny just outlined that if the U.S. Supreme Court does, in fact, hear this case, they're going to be hearing this case at the same time that voters and states are going to the polls

who are engaging in a caucus to choose the Republican nominee. And Donald Trump has been very vocal, suggesting that this could nullify the votes of Republicans who are selecting who their nominee is going to be. And if, in fact, the U.S. Supreme Court were to affirm the Colorado Supreme Court's decision and remove Donald Trump from the ballot, that would be. throw this Republican primary into chaos ahead of the Republican National Convention when they will formally select their nominee in July. I mean, as Von just said, there are so many considerations.

So, Danny, I want to end with you. What do you think could be Trump's biggest legal obstacle to becoming president again? Technically, it would be this ballot access impediment because of the finding as an insurrectionist, the Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Technically, I think that's the case. But however, so many other courts so far, had. have gone the other way, allowing Trump to remain on the ballot, and even the Colorado Supreme Court was sharply divided, and the lower court, they had to overturn a lower Colorado

court decision, finding that even though Trump engaged in insurrection, he could still remain on the ballot because he was not an officer within the meaning of Section 3. The point to be made is that there are so many things that have to line up for Trump to remain off the ballot under this theory of insurrection, and so many, so many easy ways that keeping them off fails at the appellate review. So, technically, keeping him off the ballot is the surest way to keep him off the ballot, more so than criminal cases or any of his civil cases. But it seems really unlikely that the Supreme Court will side with the Colorado Supreme Court. It will more likely side with the other courts so far that have found reasons to keep him on the ballot and find

that he is not an insurrectionist banned by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. All right, Danny Savalos, Von Hilliard, important analysis. Thank you both. Overseas now to the latest on the war in Gaza, Israeli forces, showing reporters what it called the largest tunnel used by Hamas that it has uncovered so far. Those journalists included NBC's Josh Letterman, and he has this report. We start our journey into Gaza at Erez Crossing. The border checkpoint ransacked by Hamas on October 7th, now in shambles. Entering northern Gaza on foot, the sounds of gunfire ricochet of.

across the desert as we pass a vast wasteland of mangled steel and concrete blocks, tanks rolling by and the hum of Israeli drones overhead. The Gassans called them mosquitoes, and they are a daily reminder that everyone here is being watched. The Israeli military has brought us here to see what it says is evidence of how Hamas has burrowed itself into Gaza's population. You've got reinforced concrete, they have electrical wires, there is plumbing overhead. I'm about 5-8, and you can see this goes way above my head, so it's probably about 10 feet tall.

NBC News can't verify what this tunnel was used for, or when. But Israel is under increasing pressure to prove its allegations about Hamas, especially after its deadly onslaught at Gaza's largest hospital last month. Several independent analyses later raised questions about Israel's claim that Hamas had command and control facilities deep underground. Showing these tunnels to the media, is this an effort to justify incredible, numbers of Palestinian deaths. I think this is an effort to justify the fact that we have no choice but to be in Gaza fighting Hamas and that those civilians were condemned the moment that Hamas built these tunnels

underneath them. Tonight, the war-fueling tensions across the region. An attack drone launched against U.S. forces in Iraq. Hezbollah saying it launched 30 rockets at Israel's northernmost city. And yet more airstrikes in Khan Yunus, Gaza's second largest city. Josh Letterman, NBC News, the Gaza Strip. Now to the shocking death of a beloved South Korean actor, Li Sun Kian, known for his role in the historic Oscar-winning film Parasite,

was found dead in his car this morning. The tragic discovery coming after an intense investigation into the actor's alleged drug use as the country cracks down on illicit substance use. NBC News foreign correspondent Molly Hunter reports. Tonight, tragedy in the film world shining a light on South Korea's strict crackdown on drugs. Lee Suncoon, the actor who appeared in the Oscar-winning film Parasite, found dead in Seoul after weeks of intense investigation into his alleged drug use. Police say Lee was found dead in a car after his manager told them Lee had left a note

that seemed to be his will. Lee's body was later transported to a nearby Seoul hospital, according to police. Lee rose to stardom in South Korea for his roles in TV hits like Coffee Prince, but he became a sensation in the U.S. after playing the father of a wealthy family in the dark comedy parasite. Which won four Academy Awards in 2020. Parasite. Including the coveted best picture.

According to local media, Lee had been under investigation for allegedly using marijuana, Kedamine and other illegal drugs at the residence of a bar hostess. He said he was innocent and insisted he was tricked into taking the drugs and that he did not know what he was taking, according to South Korean news agency Yanhab. The investigation ignited extensive tabloid coverage and rumors about the alleged drug use and his private life. Lee had repeatedly apologized to his fans and family. Back in October, after being questioned by police, he said, I feel sorry to my family members

who are enduring two difficult pains at this moment. I again sincerely apologize to everyone. That investigation unfolding as the South Korean president vows to crack down on the the use and smuggling of illicit substances and what he calls a, quote, war on drugs. The national police agency reporting it is detained about 17,150 people for drug-related crimes this year, an all-time high and up nearly 40 percent from 2022. I saw the news break and just had to stop for a second. Social media users around the world mourning Lee's death and remembering his legacy. I want to leave you with this thought. Please just have compassion. Molly Hunter,

NBC News. Still ahead tonight, cold case closed a YouTuber using a drone and finding the remains of a man who went missing a decade ago. What he told top story about that discovery at the bottom of a lake and how he pulled it off. Plus, the shocking new video showing a pair of tourists near Miami robbed at gunpoint one even hit with a gun and dragged. The urgent search for those suspect. And the AI legal battle why the New York Times is now suing OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright right infringement. Stay with us. We're back now with a break in a case that has gone unsolved for a decade.

An Army veteran vanishing in the Ozarks of Missouri in 2003. Now tonight, his family finally getting answers thanks to an amateur investigator with a YouTube channel and a drone. Our Maura Barrett spoke to that drone pilot about what he found. Okay, just right down there is the pond. This is the remarkable moment. A YouTuber broke up in a case that had been unsolved for a decade. There in the water, a car belonging to 59-year-old Donald Irwin, an Army veteran who went missing in Missouri's Ozarks back in December 2013.

What went through your mind? I went through all the emotions. But at the same time, I knew I had a job to do. James Hinkle's YouTube channel Echo Divers specializes in missing person cases. He's been looking into Irwin's case for the past year. Just got out of a map and just made a list of places that. that we thought we probably should go check. He and his team used a drone for the aerial search,

retracing the route Irwin likely took the morning he went missing. Hinkle, taking out his kayak once it looked like something could be in the water. In the center of my kayak, I have sonar equipment mounted, and that sonar equipment allows us to see what's actually down inside the water. It is confirmed. That is the vehicle. After identifying the Hyundai Alantra as a match, the Camden County Missouri Sheriff's Office and their cadaver dogs

found remains in the pond, along with an artificial hip consistent with the one Irwin had. But the discovery, Hinkle says, happened because of a very particular set of circumstances. The landowner had just bailed up hay around this pond, and it was sitting at the top of the hill, and by itself, it rolled down the hill and went into the water. That hay bale acts as a filter and cleans up the water. If that hadn't have happened, I could have flown over it and not seen the car. After 10 years, Hinkle's team bringing closure to a grieving family. Have you been in touch with any of his family members? Yvonne is Donnie's sister, and she's been the driving force behind this the entire time. The first thing that I said to her was, I'm sorry that this is

your Christmas present. And she was, she said, no, you gave me my brother back. Wow. And It joins us now from Chicago. Mora, this is an incredible story, and this all unfolded just before Christmas. So what are the next steps here in the investigation? Well, Zinclair, forensic pathologists will need to examine the remains and the hip to make sure that they do, in fact, are consistent with those of Mr. Irwin. Though they are confident that it is a match. And a specific cause of death is yet to be determined. But investigators expressed gratitude for all the volunteers that helped with this 10-year-long case.

Zinclay. Maura Barrett, thanks so much. And when we come back, a deadly helicopter crash in Miami, the chopper slamming into a canal. First responders racing to the scene, what we're learning tonight about the two people on board. Stay with us. We're back now with Top Stories News Feed. We begin with a deadly helicopter crash into a Miami area canal. Divers can be seen searching the canal after fire rescue. crews pulled two people from the water following a helicopter crash, according to authorities. Both patients were taken to the hospital, a man later pronounced dead.

The other person is expected to be okay. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the crash. And a violent robbery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, caught on camera. New video shows the terrifying moments, a pair of tourists, was robbed at gunpoint. The suspects dragging one of the victims, even hitting him with a gun, before jumping into a car waiting nearby. Authorities say they stole a watch valued at $45,000, a search is still underway for the suspects. And the New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement. The Times aims to stop the companies from using its articles to train chat bots such as ChatGPT, according to the federal lawsuit.

The publisher arguing Microsoft and OpenAI should be held responsible for billions of dollars in damages as a result of unauthorized use of the Times content. to another major legal dispute in the technology industry. Late today, an appeals court halting a federal ban on Apple Watch imports that went into effect yesterday. The ban enacted after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that some Apple Watch models infringed on intellectual property from California-based biotech firm Massimo, which makes a variety of medical technology and electronic devices. Now, I visited the company's headquarters last year and spoke with the co-inventor of their oxymeters. Massimo said that product is used by about 200 million patients per year. Put simply, they've got a large reach. Here to talk about that and the back and forth on this ban and what it means for technology.

I'm joined now by freelance technology journalist Mark Sultzman. Mark, thanks for being with me. So let's just start with this appeals court decision. What does it actually mean for Apple? Well, I'll stop short of saying it's a Christmas miracle because no doubt they've lost in sales of these two Apple Watch models leading up to the holidays. But it's good news for Apple going forward, at least in the short term, until they can show that they are working on this technology. Maybe, I don't know if it's a licensing deal or if they can make some changes to Apple Watch to get out of this in the long term.

But this is good news because this is a very lucrative division of Apple's, the wearables and home division. It's estimated to be worth about $40 billion of which Apple Watch is about a third, about $16, $17 billion. So there's a lot at stake here. So this is good news for Apple to have this stay granted. So, Mark, you say it's good news, but as you said, there's also a lot at stake. And as we've mentioned, this is just a temporary stay. So if this ban goes back into effect, how significant could this be for Apple? After all, Massimo is not some small company here. Yeah, well, again, so the details are still scarce, at least publicly, about what is happening behind closed doors. Apple's a $3 trillion industry. A business,

So no doubt they've got some strong legal counsel that is guiding them. So there is a lot of stake here. Not only is this a very lucrative division of apples, as I mentioned. By the way, $40 billion is more than Apple's iPad division, which is about $28 billion, according to their last fiscal info, and $29 billion for their Mac business. But there's a lot of competition, right? Google acquired Fitbit.

We've got Samsung Galaxy Watch. There's the pixel watch family. So there's a lot of competition. Apple wants the Apple Watch to be the de facto wearable device for health and wellness. And of that, the pulse oxymeter, which measures your blood oxygen levels, that's really important to have that in there. They do not want to remove this feature. And I mean, the Apple Watch is a pretty commonly used technology and device. Have we seen anything like this before, this kind of back and forth legally?

And have we also heard from Apple regarding these specific allegations? Yeah, so we've seen, of course, lots of patent debates over the years with not just Apple, but with all these big tech companies, whether they resolve it out of the courts, whether it's a licensing deal, but, you know, Massimo is claiming it's pretty significant that Apple has poached its staff and technology. So this is something that Apple needs to address formally in order to have this stay extended. But we have, you know, we've seen these kinds of, of, of debates naturally and lawsuits over the years. Apple Watch, you know, Apple introduces technology back in 2020. So this is something that's not brand new, but they want to keep adding to it.

Allegedly, they're going to be adding a blood pressure monitor to Apple Watch series 10 or 11 is the rumor. So they want to keep adding. They do not want to take away any of these key features that has made the Apple Watch so successful to begin with. All right, freelance technology journalist Mark Saltman. Thank you so much. And coming up, a special of Top Story, Tom Yamis travels back to Lahaina four months after that catastrophic wildfire. His interviews with survivors who barely managed to escape the flames, the firefighters who ran into them, and the official now trying to answer what went wrong. That starts after the break. Now to a special edition of Top Story. It's been more than four months since one of the deadliest

fires of our time tore through the island of Maui and Hawaii. In the town of Lahaina, at least 100 people died. Thousands of families left without a home. The pain and devastation of that day still lingering, and so are the questions. Artam Yamas takes us back to that town where the firefighters who fought the inferno relived the horror, survivors sharing new stories and rare video of how they managed to escape and an official now speaking out on what could have been done to prevent the catastrophe. This is in the ashes, the firefighters, victims, and survivors of Lahaina's deadly inferno. Just kind of an o'ohao'a o'an.

It just kind of look like an atomic, like a bomb had gone off. Everything I ever knew, everything that I've ever called home, was gone and completely lost. I try not to think so much of the bad we saw that day. You know, it's incomprehensive one. It's still tough to grieve your friends, family, loved ones, and then grieve the memories, and they grieve the memories. We're still grieving. This is our first look right now over Lahaina,

and you can see there is absolutely nothing. The embers have barely cooled in Lahaina, a historic beach town on the Hawaiian island of Maui, as if time has stood still. Good evening. Tonight we are on the ground for the first time. live in Lahaina. It's just broken. It's devastating. Complete and utter failure. Where are you guys too to try and get us out, evacuate us? No, we're mad. So many

questions are still unanswered more than four months later. The fire ravaged more than 2,000 buildings, most of them homes, killing at least a hundred people. It's the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. Sleep doesn't come easy anymore, you know? It's just the PTSD is real, and it's going to be tough for a while, but we have no choice. We've got to make it. We've got to do it for the people that didn't.

Start thinking about how we could change for the next time. And make sure it doesn't happen. I think of that day, and it was like all the elements that came into play that led to the chain of events that led to our entire town burning down. Seriously, all fell into place perfectly. There's still no official timeline or account of the fire that destroyed Lahaina on August 8th. And aid and relief are beginning to dry up. In a town of nearly 13,000 residents, 12,000 were displaced by the fire. Most are still living in temporary housing, struggling to rebuild their lives,

years away from calling Lahaina home again. This is an old picture of Lahaina town. This is Lahaina right here. These are some of the firefighters. who desperately fought that inferno, sharing new details of that day, a battle they wouldn't win. These high winds mix with the dry summertime heat has led to a red flag warning for leeward parts of the state. This means that a... We knew that the hurricane was passing south of us in tandem with the red flag warnings, and so we all kind of got an early start.

At around 6.40 a.m., resident Shane True says he hears a power line, snapping. You see the sparking and you see flames. You see the sparking. Flames start almost immediately after from the dry grass. Oh, this is live right across the street from my house. Breaking power line just went down. In the area where the morning fire was reported, Trout records one of the first videos of the fire

after a wooden power pole had snapped under high winds and ignited flames. When I got to work, heard there was a fire at Lahaina Luna, but they had it contained, and we were just going to go from Lapa. Before 9 a.m., Maui County declares the three-acre brush fire 100% contained. When it's contained, it means it's not actively spreading. However, it's impossible to try and get every smoldering piece or every ember that's under the rocks. In this ravine, that's where the fire was located.

So that's why they stayed there for extended hours and just kind of dumping copious amounts of water. We were there for hours, and the wind was like nuking, and we're sitting on this fire that is out. By 2.18 p.m., Ina Kohler and the other firefighters leave the scene of the morning fire. So we left around two to go eat and take a break at the station, and there was a ton of cars on the roads, a lot of detours,

because lines were already down, poles were already down. Then, at 254 p.m., the alarms rang. A report of a brush fire in the same area they had just been in. We were like, oh, my God, seriously? We just left. Like, how could that possibly be? I call in sick to work the day before the fire. And then I get a couple calls coming in to,

My fiancé, and what really triggered me was when she's talking to her colleague, and she's like, my neighbor's roof is on fire. That's when it hit me, like, I have to go in. We were able to get in front of it, but that's when a big gust came. Then I see it start running westerly. Once I saw that, that sense of helplessness kicked in. So a gentleman kind of kicks in, and I see smoke, I see flames, and then I see the crew I'm going to meet up with. And the look on their face is something I won't forget.

By 4.27 p.m., the fire has traveled about a mile to resident Diego Rivera's house. He doesn't have cell service or power. At 444, Rivera makes a harrowing attempt to flee to safety. This video captures the sheer terror that those escaping the Inferno were facing. Somebody's down right here. Somebody's down right here. Just go, Dad. We cannot do nothing for her. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, bro. Just go, Dad, just go. We cannot do nothing for her.

Rivera declined to talk to us on camera. The memory is still too traumatic. Wow, look at all that so. That's nuts, too. Around the same time, Noah Tompkinson and his family tried to escape the fire. His mom driving towards Front Street, the main drag along the water. I don't know why it's a standstill. I don't understand. Around 520, realizing they're trapped, they jumped into the ocean. You're going to be okay, Milo.

Both sides to the left and the right are on fire. Scary. A little after 6 p.m., Maui mayor Richard Bisson appears live on television, seemingly unaware about the extent of the fire. I'm happy to report that the road is open to and from Lahaina, O Q, Q, Q, Road. The mayor appears unaware here at 6.03 p.m. That Front Street has already been burning. On the north end of Front Street, Hawaii native Charles Nahale is also unaware

that a fire is raging. I didn't realize there was an infernal happening down the road. We're thinking all along we're going to be okay. Everybody needs to evacuate. Police were evacuating residents. Evacuate! But an appearance.

breakdown in official communication left many with no warning and almost no way out. There was no guidance. We had to make the decision on our own when it was time to go. Back in the ocean, Noah and his little brother Milo are with their mother who has been struggling to keep her head above water. Days after the fire, still in shock, Noah and Milo told me about their experience. What was that like, senior mom, kind of like in that position? I think among all the stress of like looking out for her kids, she started to have a hard time. She was like, you know, shaking cold from the, you know, anxiety. And there was one point where we kind of like all huddled around her and just wanted to like keep her warm. Meanwhile, for hours, Kohler and her crew had been

trying to save various homes. Here she is taking over for police at the shed. It's all this stuff on the side. The fire turned heroes into victims. Oh, they're shooting it. Oh, this is your house? At around eight, firefighter Ina Kohler heads to her neighborhood and tries to retrieve water from the fire hydrants. But those fire hydrants are dry.

It's like going to a gunfight with no bullets, but you got your gun. We're like, oh, good luck, hope you, you know. And then we finally get above the bypass looking down on Lahaina. It cut us off, and it was too dangerous to see because lines were down and trees had fallen. We're up top and like, this is it. This is, this is it. It can't get worse than this. And then I square it, not even 20 minutes later, I go over the hill and look down at Waikuli, and I just, I'm like, how did it jump and just eat everything in its past? That sense of helplessness, nothing can prepare you for, no, nothing could have prepared us for that moment. Around midnight, after an extraordinary 16 hours battling the flames, the moment Ina Kohler had been fearing all day.

There was fire above it, fire around it, you know, and. And then finally one time we went through and it was, it could see that it was like my house that was on fire. But you're not, you can't like stop and think about that. You just got to keep going. We're almost, almost rescued. There's a fire truck here. Finally, at around 2 a.m., firefighters rescue the Tompkinsons. I was just trying to survive, like I was just in survival mode, that's it.

If any of us were alone, I don't know if we would have made it. We worked until only about 10 a.m. the next morning. Driving back to the station was tough, and it was just ash. This is the place I grew up. How do I not know what street this is? Even at 400 feet in the air, you can still smell the smoke days later, and you look down and you can't make out what you're seen. It was a David and Gilead situation, and we were battling an inferno that we could not put out. The fire department, we always win. We didn't win this time.

When we come back, more of Inferno. In the Ashes with Tom Yamas. We're back now with more of Tom's in-depth look at the town of Lahaina months after that catastrophic wildfire. You're watching in the ashes, the firefighters, victims, and survivors of Lahaina's deadly inferno. What happened that day is now the subject of dozens of. lawsuits. Many blame the utility company, Hawaiian Electric, for allegedly causing the fire with its power lines. The county of Maui is also suing Hawaiian Electric for negligence. A lawsuit the utility says is factually and legally irresponsible. There have been persistent

and frequent public warnings about Maui's fire risk. And on Maui, heavy winds fueling a string of brush fires. After devastating wildfires in 2018, residents raised concerns about power line risks, highly flammable, overgrown grasses, and communication failures. But not enough changed. The island avoided catastrophe then,

but this time, the wind was just too strong. This is my old church, my old house. As a coffee shop, oh, there's my sign. As Kohler takes us to what remains of her home and the coffee shop she once owned, she can't help but think about what lies ahead. It's hard to stay positive and move forward. This is the search school.

How are we going to continuously pay our mortgage and rent once insurance is out we're going to need a lot of help right now it's just like things are kind of becoming routine and the home we're in we're only in for another month and a half so that's been our home but it's definitely it'll be it'll be be a while, I think, before we can kind of call somewhere home, you know. And she wants accountability, now suing Hawaiian Electric for negligence. I'm tired of going on fires that the power lines cause. To me, it's just negligent. How do you hold a monopoly accountable? Everyone's just going to pass the buck, pass the blame to somebody

else. Hawaiian Electric has said that the morning fire appears to have been caused by power lines that fell in high winds. But the utility points out that the firefighters declared the fire contained and left the scene, only to have a second fire begin in the same area. I'm like, are we your personal firefighters? Because that's what they're asking us to do, is only serve them and protect their mistakes that they caused.

Your guys started this fire, we put it out. Now you want us to sit on it all day, even though it's out, and you're going to blame us. The crew did an amazing job, and they did contain it to that area. The winds that day was about 80 miles an hour. There's no way to prevent the wind doing what it does. In a statement to NBC News, Hawaiian Electric said that they are thankful for the courageous work of the firefighters who responded and extinguished the morning fire and that the cause of the afternoon fire remains undetermined. Was Hawaiian Electric as proactive as they should have been? No, I strongly believe that Hawaiian Electric should have done a power shutoff program.

That would have been appropriate given the winds being over 70 miles an hour. There was red flag warnings. Until October of 2022, Jennifer Potter ran the regulatory body that oversees Hawaiian Electric. Did Hawaiian Electric know that their system was vulnerable during these high winds? If they try and state that they didn't, that would be sort of an insult. Some of those poles are over 40, 50 years old, and a lot of them are compromised. Potter says Hawaiian Electric should have prevented disaster by proactively turning the power off before the windstorm. Not only did the utility not do that, instead it turned the power back on, around 6 a.m. after high winds had tripped off the electricity.

I'm not a big fan of that. That wasn't a good, I don't think that was a good call. Are you angry at Hawaiian Electric? Yeah, I think they should have. I think they should have. I think they. I really do think they should have turned off the power. I think that they had enough information to do the right thing. The utility says there was no electricity in West Maui after approximately 6.39 a.m. Around the time, the morning fire started. You ran the commission.

Your job was to oversee the utility. Do you feel like you're to blame as well for this? I think that there is some responsibility at the commission for not requiring a wildfire. mitigation plans. I think that given what we saw in 2018, we should have been very proactive. That was a missed opportunity. The utility is responsible for their own liabilities. Hawaiian Electric said that Ms. Potter's comments reflect a perspective that is influenced by the tragic events of August 8th, and that while she served on the commission, she did not raise concerns about the utility's procedures for responding to red flag wind warnings and did not

mention the idea of proactively turning off the power. Another decision under scrutiny, officials never activated emergency warning sirens. Do you regret not sounding the sirens? I do not. A decision, Maui's emergency management chief defended, saying the sirens are primarily for tsunamis and that there were concerns people would evacuate towards the fire. The next day, citing health reasons, he resigned. Hawaii's Attorney General is investigating the fires and the government's response.

The AG has issued subpoenas to three Maui agencies, suggesting they have slowed down the investigation by failing to provide critical facts. Meanwhile, survivors are stuck in limbo, still with no real answers, searching for a way forward. It's really difficult to begin the process of healing and working through the trauma. Wedding minister and musician Charles Nahalai has been balancing between different temporary Red Cross shelters since the fire. Sort of like the hunger games, you know, the housing market in Hawaii was scarce before the fire. Now, with displaced people in shelters, whether that be time shares or condos or the hotels, it's nearly impossible to find places to rent long-term. My work deals with visitors here, but we are hurting too deeply.

We need time to be able to be coexisting with people in their bathing suits. and drinking and having a grand old time. There are other parts of the island of Maui that is business as usual. We're nowhere near ready for that. I want to take the lesson that this is taught us and maybe it'll help other places that might be like ours. we can sit around and blame each other all we want

and blame this place and blame that place and think about what we could have done to prevent it but we didn't we have to have hope that we can build back stronger, better to have that limmer to really push forward holomois as we say in Hawaii

to push forward to greater things we can't not have a Lahaina like this is that's our home so we will rebuild there will be a Lahaina and we're gonna be here for it and I think that's what that's that's that Thank you. Our thanks to Tom and NBC's digital docs team for that really moving piece. We are thinking of Lahaina tonight and into the new year.

For Tom Yamas, I'm Zinclair Samoa. More news is on the way.